People in H&S: Michael N. Chetkovich

Page 1

What sort of man is Mike Chetkovich?
A man whose rare combination of pro­fessional
talent and personal qualities
made him the logical choice to be
named managing partner of a major
public accounting firm. A man whose
abilities were recognized by his profes-sion
when it named him chairman of
the prestigious American Institute of
CPAs. A man who represented the pro­fession
during one of its most critical
periods of transition and change, who
has traveled thousands of miles and de­voted
countless hours working for in­ternational
harmony and cooperation,
and who has never lost sight of or inter­est
in the importance of improving the
education of future accountants to en­sure
that they are equipped to meet the
demands of the profession in the years
ahead.
Mike Chetkovich is a complex indi­vidual,
and such a person is like a finely
faceted diamond — the physical con­tours
are fixed but the inner light shifts
and reflects, revealing the depths that
lie within.
In many respects Mike's life represents
The Great American Success Story,
Horatio Alger updated. Mike was born
in Angels Camp, California, where his
father, who came to this country from
the Dalmatian Coast of what is now
Yugoslavia (as did his mother), was a
gold miner. During his college vaca­tions
Mike, too, worked briefly in the
mines, loading ore cars. In retrospect,
he maintains that he much preferred
the time he spent working on a high­way
maintenance crew.
An outstanding student at the Uni­versity
of California at Berkeley, Mike
was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and re­ceived
a bachelor of science degree. In
his senior year he was president of Beta
Alpha Psi, the accounting fraternity,
and Beta Gamma Sigma, the honorary
business fraternity. He earned a master
of science degree from the school on a
fellowship.
America was on the brink of war in
1941 when Mike sat for the Uniform
CPA Examination and was awarded
the Forbes Medal of the California So­ciety
of CPAs for achieving the highest
grades in the state. The following year
he went on active duty with the Naval
Reserve, where he was assigned to In­telligence
and learned Japanese. After
four years with the Navy, interrogating
prisoners of war and translating docu­ments,
Lieutenant Chetkovich was
discharged in 1946.
Mike returned to the prominent west
coast accounting firm of McLaren,
Goode, West & Co., where he had
been employed before entering the
service. He was a partner with that firm
in San Francisco when, in 1952, it
merged with Haskins & Sells and Mike
became a partner in H&S. He was
named partner in charge of the San
Francisco office in 1965, transferred to
Executive Office in 1967, and in 1970
was named managing partner.
The variety of Mike's involvement
in professional and other activities over
the years best illustrates his commit­ment
to his profession and his deep
interest in education and international
understanding. He was a director and
vice president of the California Society
of CPAs before moving to New York,
taught accounting for the University of
California Extension Division and
served on the Santa Clara County
(California) grand jury as well as on a
lay advisory committee for a new math­ematics
program for the Palo Alto
school system. He is a member of the
boards of directors of the Business
Council for International Understand­ing
and the New York chapter of the
American Cancer Society, a member of
the advisory board of the Council on
Financial Aid to Education and a trus­tee
of the United States Council of the
International Chamber of Commerce.
Mike has been a vice president of the
American Accounting Association, is
a member of the Institute of Internal
Auditors and a governor of the Ac­countants
Club of New York. He has
served as AICPA representative to the
International Coordination Com­mittee
for the Accountancy Profession
since its formation in 1972.
As chairman of the AICPA, Mike
has had a particularly busy speaking
schedule this past year. In just under
eight months, from late January to
mid-September 1977, he addressed the
Rochester Institute of Technology as a
William D. Gasser distinguished lec­turer;
the Hawaii Society of CPAs in
Honolulu; the American Accounting
Association in Portland; the Harrisburg
(Pennsylvania) Rotary Club; the
Pacific Northwest CPA Conference in
Fairbanks, Alaska; the Institute of
Chartered Accountants in England and
Wales in Cambridge, England; the
Middle Atlantic States Accounting
Conference in White Sulphur Springs,
West Virginia; the Institute of Char­tered
Accountants in Australia in Syd­ney;
the Southern States Conference of
CPAs on Marco Island, Florida; the
Transvaal Society of Chartered Ac­countants
in Johannesburg, South